EU/Africa:
1st anniversary of the shooting of migrants in Ceuta and MelillaA number of initiatives have been organised
throughout Europe and in several African countries (Benin, Mali,
Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) as part of the transnational day
of action against migration controls that has been set for 7
October, which also marks the first anniversary of the shooting
of migrants at the Spanish-Moroccan border fences of the enclaves
of Ceuta and Melilla in late September and early October 2005.

The Migreurop network has published a "black book"
to document the situation in the two Spanish north African enclaves,
which features analysis, photographs and extensive testimonies
from migrants themselves, who are thus given the opportunity
to describe their experiences of what EU institutions euphemistically
refer to as an "integrated system to fight illegal immigration",
which is repeatedly, and annoyingly, considering that migrants
have been shot, abandoned to die in the desert, hunted down and
detained in inhumane conditions, followed by the phrase "while
respecting human rights".

Introduction to the Black Book, from the Migreurop website

A year ago, the media lights focussed on the enclaves of Ceuta
and Melilla, Euro-African frontiers where some migrants were
killed for having sought to enter the European Union (cf our
article from October 2005, Ceuta et Melilla : L'UE déclare
la guerre aux migrants et aux réfugiés).

One year later, although Morocco is no longer the focus of news
reports, the situation of exiles and refugees is still as precarious
as it was, with their fundamental rights violated on a daily
basis. Most of all, the walls and electronic barriers at the
Euro-Mediterranean border are increasingly more difficult to
cross, and sub-Saharan exiles are forced to employ routes that
are always longer and more dangerous: while we know about the
arrivals of boat people in the Canary islands, how many daily
deaths have there been in the Atlantic Ocean?

With The black book of Ceuta and Melilla, the Migreurop network
seeks to allow the victims of last year's events to speak, at
the same time as placing this repression within the European
context of the externalisation of border control policies and
policies to deny the right of free movement to the peoples of
the South. The 17 deaths of Ceuta and Melilla are, in fact, the
most visible consequence of a policy that is being pursued and
whose unnamed victims are limited to silence and anonimity.(translated by Statewatch)

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